09: Electric Angel
by Silent Elegy
Summary: With three new out of control powers to handle, the last thing Danny needs is a visit from Technus. But the Master of Technology isn't the only one with a villainous plot, as the assassin called Ebony Angel can attest.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom and all related characters are the product of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon studios. Ebony Angel and Kat/Electra are the product Silent Elegy.

* * *

Anonymity. To be anonymous. To be unknown. To be secretive. To be mysterious. To be… 

Something slammed into the wall outside her cell; she didn't pay much attention until something else suddenly appeared in the cell with her. She was used to surprise attacks and barely moved except to raise an eyebrow. His face was blue. He looked like a vampire in white.

"Ebony Angel, I presume?"

The voice of her former employer. She was good with voices. "Don't play stupid with me," she said as she continued to lounge on her bunk. "Vlad, isn't it? That's what the kid called you."

He seemed momentarily nonplussed, then he smiled. "Plasmius," he replied. "Vlad Plasmius. I'm here to get you out."

She scoffed bitterly. "What's the point? My Sweetheart's trashed. Roho's got the garage under surveillance. And it's November. Not Angel."

Up to this point, Vlad had held his hands behind his back. Now, he produced them for her inspection. In one, he held a black biker's helmet. In the other, a black lacquered key ring with a single black key. "Not anymore," he said smugly.

November lunged to her feet and snatched the key away. "Where's my baby, old man?" Her voice would have made a penguin shiver.

"Perfectly safe in my castle and awaiting your attention. That is, if you're still interested…"

"What's the deal?"

Vlad smiled. "The same as it was. Kill Jack Fenton. I would prefer it if you did not kill young Daniel, but if you must, then I suppose, you must."

"Good! Because I'm going to. That kid hurt my baby."

"Yes, yes…" He rolled his eyes; few people understand the nature of Ebony Angel and Sweetheart's relationship. In fact, no one did, now that Frank was dead.

She angrily shoved the thought away and held out her hand. "Get me out of here."

* * *

Ebony Angel stroked the seat of her bike lovingly. "The kid's back in town, finally," she said. "What do you think, Sweetheart? Is he a ghost or not?" 

There was, naturally, no response. Most people thought Angel was insane for talking to her bike. She thought they were insane for talking to the TV. Sweetheart was her only friend since Frank died; of course, she talked to it. Of course, she called it baby. Of course, she took spectacular care of it.

"So what do you like better?" she asked, not expecting a response. "Should we attack now while he's still getting settled? Or should we wait until he's comfortable?" She laughed as though Sweetheart had said something witty and patted its handlebars. "Yeah, I know how much you love a good show. Saturday, it is!"

Angel didn't really think the bike had answered. So many people didn't seem to grasp that. They spoke to inanimate objects all the time. She was just nicer about it. Not that it really mattered what other people thought. She had long since stopped caring.

People were sheep. And Ebony Angel was the dog.

* * *

A/N: Right, if you've checked my prologue in the last couple days or so, you might notice I had Sheep in Wolf's Clothing as the next up. It's the same story, I just changed the name when I realized Technus was going to be in it, too. 


	2. Chapter One

Danny sat with his chin propped against his fist and his pencil floating the barest fraction of an inch above his desk. He wasn't having a good day. Ever since he got back from Baltimore, his "fainting spells" had become slightly more frequent. He had managed some level of control, but he still found himself walking out of his body from time to time. One such time had happened earlier, and Dash had taken great pains to ridicule him for it.

They didn't know what happened. They didn't know what was going on. Normally, Danny would simply have grumbled angrily and walked away. He got as far as the angry grumbling when his telekinesis decided to throw Dash several feet. Fortunately, the jock had suffered little more than a pronounced bump on the back of his skull as he had landed on top of Kwan. Everyone thought a ghost had been responsible.

They didn't know how right they were.

The end bell rang; Danny sat where he was until his friend Sam leaned over and said, "Are you okay? It's time to go."

"Yeah," he answered vaguely, standing. "I'm just…not all here, I guess." He made a half-hearted attempt at a smile. Outside of his family, Sam and Tucker were the only people who knew about Baltimore and what had happened there. They chatted quietly as they walked beside him, waiting patiently for him to join in the conversation. They were good friends, the best-

Tucker nudged him lightly. "Hey, man. You're broadcasting again."

Danny paled and glanced around. "I don't think anyone else heard you," Sam reassured him. "But thanks!"

"I really got to watch that," the boy muttered, laughing slightly. He'd had to alter four people's memories already because he accidentally thought too loudly. It was a very useful skill to have, the power of suggestion. It was also an addictive one, so he used it sparingly. Or tried to, at least. Sometimes he used it without even realizing it.

But it was so nice to be able to get out of having detention. "So you guys want to go to the mall?" he asked in an attempt to steer away from that train of thought. Happy to see their friend in slightly better spirits, the two readily agreed.

* * *

The mall was filled with people as usual for a Friday afternoon. They bustled about, taking full advantage of the heated interior as they did their shopping or simply socialized. It was the perfect atmosphere for a distraction-hunting ghost boy.

"Okay," Sam began as they walked out of the movie theater. "_Zombie Rodents from Planet X_ was definitely not worth the ten bucks."

"I don't think it was worth ten cents," Tucker agreed.

Danny snickered quietly. "I don't know. I think the part where those guys were running from the rabbit was kind of funny."

Sam pretended to seriously consider that for a moment. "Yeah, I'd pay a quarter for that scene, but the rest was just bad."

"Well, we probably should have expected it," Tucker pointed out. "The title just screams 'B-grade horror'."

Suddenly, Danny gasped as a chill passed through him that turned his breath into fog. It was almost a shock; his ghost sense hadn't gone off since his family left for Baltimore. Sam rolled her eyes and said dryly, "And that just screams 'ghost'."

With an irritated huff, the ghost boy took his Fenton Thermos from Tucker and ducked behind a large fern. A blue flash of light later, Danny Phantom flew through the fern, following the sounds of terrified shoppers until he found the disturbance. Although he would have denied it unto his grave if asked, he was overjoyed to see the familiar visage of Technus. It was a nice contrast to the waking nightmare of Baltimore.

"I am Technus 2.0!" the gremlin announced to anyone who might have been paying attention. "Ruler of all things robotic!"

He had not yet acquired an assortment of machines to act as his host, so was still in his ghostly form. He hovered a few feet above the floor outside a Radio Shack, a small army of mechanical pets arranged beneath him. Danny clamped his hands over his mouth to stifle his laughter; his opponent was not amused. "I was wondering if you ever coming back," he said. "Now, I can defeat you at last! Go, my Robo Raptors!"

"Dude, they're just toys," Danny scoffed. As if to disprove this, one of them opened its mouth and fired some kind of ecto-powered laser at him. He yelped and rubbed his arm.

"Not anymore, ghost child! I, Technus, have improved them, so that they may march on the unsuspecting humans and-" He broke off with an annoyed grumble as he realized he was once again shouting out his evil plot.

Same old Technus. It really was refreshing. Danny hoped the store owner wouldn't be too mad as he blasted the army of toys into plastic bits and turned back to his enemy. Technus glared angrily and started to speak, then changed his mind and fled as the ghost boy pulled out the Fenton Thermos.

* * *

Angel sat in the parking lot, eyes fixed on the entrance Danny and his friends had gone through. Her patience was not limitless, unfortunately, and she was afraid she had missed them on one of her many drives around the mall. She was just considering giving it up as a bad job when her quarry came hurtling out of the building pursued by something that looked like a Pontiac Firebird might if it had been melded with several televisions, an entertainment system, some DVD players, and an X-Box 360 or two. The automotive lover in her head cried out in anger at the desecration of a perfectly beautiful, if somewhat worthless until customized, racer.

She used to have a Firebird. It was red. She'd stolen it from Roho and kept it for about a week until she blew it up on his front porch. That was a nice car. Not as good as her Sweetheart, of course, but-

Little too close!

She kicked against the ground and sped off just as an errant energy blast struck the pavement. Phantom saw her, not that she cared. He was otherwise occupied, and if he chose to start a fight once he finished, she would be more than happy to oblige. She was getting bored waiting and stalking.

* * *

Danny noticed the biker in black, but it didn't click right off. He was a little too preoccupied. The battle would have been going much more smoothly if the mall hadn't put that car on display. It was for a charity auction or something. Technus hadn't actually given him a chance to read the sign.

"So what's your plan this time?" he called. "Taking over the world with mechanical toys?"

"No!" Technus protested. There was a pause, then, "It was, but now I have to think of a new one."

Danny rolled his eyes and dodged a blast to return with one of his own, and they sparred for a long time. It was cathartic, almost. He had never noticed how goofy the "Master of Technology" really was before, and couldn't help but grin.

"Hey!" the object of his train of thought protested. "I am not goofy!"

Oops.

The monitor screens flickered slightly and Technus froze. "Running low on power?" Danny asked, the picture of innocence.

In response, Technus abandoned his hastily constructed host and swung his charged energy staff at the boy. Danny cried out as several hundred volts charged through him. "We'll finish this later, ghost child," the older ghost informed him as he fled.

Danny rubbed his side, a peeved expression on face. He knew he should go after Technus, but he had told his parents he would be home right after the movie. Any other day, he might have followed his opponent anyway, but Jack and Maddie had taken to overreacting to his absences ever since…

"I'm doing it again, aren't I?"

"Yep," affirmed Sam as she and Tucker walked up behind him.

He sighed, though more in irritation than angst for a change. "I'll see you guys later."

They said their goodbyes and watched him fly away. "It's good to see him looking better," Tucker said.

Sam nodded. "Yeah. Who'd've thought Technus would actually be good for something?" They left together, neither paying much attention to the black Harley that sped across the parking lot ahead of them.

* * *

Danny trotted up the stairs to his room, grateful that no one else was home. Jack and Maddie would ply him with questions about his day while Jazz tried to convince him to talk about everything that bothered him. He just wasn't in the mood. Finally, he felt a little better, more like a human and less like a spectral ball of angst.

On the other hand, he seemed to have developed something of an aversion to being alone, and the lack of people in the house actually made him feel claustrophobic. He wanted everyone to go away, but the second they did, he wanted them to come back. It was a really weird feeling that, happily, only hit him every once in a while.

After a moment's hesitation, he curled up on his bed and closed his eyes. With any luck, his parents would simply accept that he was sleeping and not try to wake him. It wasn't the first time he had done this on purpose, but it would be the first that he had gone any farther than the walls of his room.

The world turned a blurry, shimmering sepia, like a very old photograph that had yellowed with age. He looked around his room and took a steadying breath, for all the good it did without lungs. It was almost like trying to move around under water. He spared a glance for his immobile body lying on the bed, then plunged through the door and left the house.

He found his quarry at the mausoleum in the middle of the cemetery, grumbling about something. _Hey, Kat,_ he called.

She flinched and looked around, blinking owlishly in his direction. "Ah, geez…" she breathed, turning away again. "Do me a favor and don't talk in my head, please. When did you learn that, anyway?"

_A few days ago,_ he answered, shrugging. _And I can't really help it like this._

She froze and turned back around, then blinked and squinted at him. "Oh, for the love of evil," she moaned, though with an impish glint in her eyes. "You can go invisible and intangible at will. What do you need astral projection for?"

_Well, I didn't ask for it. But I was hoping you could give me a few pointers on not using it._

They stared at each other for a long time. Finally, Kat nodded vaguely, then started laughing and shook her head. "And Dad says you're completely brain dead. Okay, Phantom. Ask. You know you want to."

_Right…_ He gave her an odd look, clearly not understanding what she meant. _I was just kind of hoping you might know someone else with this power who could teach me how to control it._

The girl closed her eyes and removed her top hat in a gesture of mourning. "Then again, maybe he's right," she said quietly. "Dear, the best advice I can offer is to just use it until you get it. And don't stay out of your body for more than an hour or so or it hurts like…well, like a word I'm not going to say around your virgin ears…to get back. Now, if you mind, I have work to do."

_What kind of work?_

"I lost a bet."

_What bet?_

Kat snickered quietly. "You remember Ghost Writer, don't you?" She laughed at his response. "I'll take that as a yes. We bet that Dad couldn't fix his keyboard."

Danny thought about that for a moment. _And he didn't?_

"No, he did."

The boy thought about for a moment longer. _You bet against your dad?_

Kat raised her arms in a gesture that was half shrug and half defeat. "It seemed the safest bet." Then, as an afterthought, she added, "I still say it's going to blow up later, though."

She vanished in blue smoke without another word, leaving Danny to make his way home in considerably brighter spirits.


	3. Chapter Two

The boy got a late start. That wasn't unusual; lots of people slept in on the weekends. It just meant that his silent stalker was falling asleep over her handlebars by the time he jogged out of the house. His eyes still had that haunted look about them, but he actually smiled as he joined his two friends. It was good to see.

Angel stowed her binoculars in a saddlebag and rubbed her eyes. What was she thinking? Danny Fenton or Phantom or Mister Bo Jangles or John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmitd…whatever he called himself, he was the enemy. He had crashed her Sweetheart into the side of an office building, and he wasn't going to get away with it.

Even if he was, well and truly, just a fourteen-year-old kid.

But these past few days of spying on him had reminded her of herself right after Frank died. Her heart may have been shriveled and black as her bike, but it was still there. She would have to be inhuman to see the boy so down in the dumps and not feel sorry for him.

But she was still going to kill him.

* * *

"So what are we doing today?" Danny asked as he joined his friends.

Tucker shrugged. "We've seen all the movies."

"You guys want to hang out at the park for a while?" Sam asked. "We haven't done that in a while."

The two boys considered that until a loud rumbling noise heralded the arrival of a black motorcycle as it passed with centimeters of hitting Tucker. He shouted and fell into Sam who fell into Danny, and they all hit the ground in a tangled heap. "What are you, insane?" Sam yelled to the black-clad rider as she struggled to her feet.

Danny stared at the assailant; there was something familiar…"Oh, no," he muttered, laying a restraining hand on his indignant friend's should. "Guys, run!"

"What is it?"

The engine revved menacingly, and Danny let his eyes turn glowing green. "That's Ebony Angel," he informed them. "Now, go! Call the police!"

Sam shook her head, fearful yet defiant. "Danny-"

"Please don't make me force you." The engine grumbled louder; it almost sounded like some predatory beast. After another moment's hesitation, Sam and Tucker turned and ran. Danny switched to his ghostly alter ego and jumped into the air. "What do you want, Angel?"

She raised one hand in a "come hither" gesture and sped away, daring him to give chase. She would not be disappointed. They raced across town, Angel expertly weaving through traffic as she kept just ahead of her pursuer. She had no real plan for the day; plans were boring. She might kill him later, but at the moment, she just wanted to race.

Danny, well aware of Angel's thought process, blinked in surprise. She was just improvising? Well, if all she wanted was a race, who was he to say no? Using his telekinesis, he lifted the bike into the air and dropped it behind him, heedless of his opponent's fearful shriek. He hovered in front of her, grinning impishly. "Catch me if you can!"

Sweetheart revved in answer to its owner's joyous response of, "We'll see who leads this race, Phantom!"

Sweetheart's top speed may have been 160 miles per hour, but every time she tried to get ahead, the boy simply lifted her into the air and set her down behind him again. Danny led the way through significantly less crowded areas until he finally got her onto the empty back roads. "So who're you after this time?" he called, drifting to a stop as she shot beneath him and turned.

She shrugged and pulled her plasma rifle from its place at her back. "You, kid," she answered. "Who else?"

The boy dodged her attack by ducking into the ground and threw himself back out right under her. Theoretically, she and the bike would be thrown into the air, and he would catch her and take her to the police station. Unfortunately, Angel had fallen for that trick once the last time they met; she was expecting it. Danny found himself in empty sky mere moments before the rifle blast hit him in the side and knocked him to the ground. He started to rise, but the barrel was suddenly in his face, and he chose to freeze instead.

"What happened to you, kid?" Angel scoffed. "Since when do you go down this easy?"

Danny went intangible and sank into the ground to come back up several feet away. "I'm not done yet," he protested. The biker whirled to face him, but she was lifted into the air by an invisible force. "Go home, Angel. I'm not going to let hurt anyone."

Angel struggled until the boy dropped her. She regained her feet and rubbed her neck; it felt like a chain had wrapped around her throat. "That's new," she mentioned, bemused.

"And that's not all, either. Just walk away."

Stupid people seldom lived long on the streets. If she was going to beat the ghost boy, she needed a plan. Without a word, she returned to her bike, mounted, and drove away. Danny followed her back to the abandoned warehouse she called home, then left to let his friends know he was still alive. Had he thought about it, he might have remembered that late December's chill didn't affect him as a ghost, and that the sight of his breath was actually his ghost sense going off.

The ghost waited until the boy was long gone before investigating the warehouse turned machine shop. Not that he would ever actually admit it if asked, but that was a nice bike. Johnny 13 would have cried had he been there to see it. Of course, Technus' interest was less for the automotive art and more for the machinery. Since arriving in Amity Park, Angel had built up quite a collection of tools and machines for the purposes of motorcycle care. It was definitely a lot nicer than the Radio Shack.

While Angel was otherwise occupied cleaning dust and gravel out of Sweetheart's tires, her equipment floated into the air around her. Thinking Danny had come back, she jumped to her feet and fumbled her plasma gun out of its holster, then whirled to face an unfamiliar ghost that fused her equipment into a mechanical body around him. She didn't believe in ghosts; really, she didn't.

So what the heck was that?

"What are you supposed to be?" she demanded, searching for any kind of an opening.

Technus smirked through the small television the biker kept to watch the news. "I am Nikolai Technus!" he announced. "Master of gears and gadgetry and lord of automotive technologies!"

Angel narrowed her eyes. "Oh, you're the one responsible for defacing that Firebird yesterday! That's a crime punishable by death!" She raised the plasma gun again, but didn't fire right away. Her interloper blinked and gave her a look as though to ask how stupid was she really?

"I'm already dead."

After a few more seconds, Angel holstered her weapon and shrugged. "Well, never mind, then. Can I have my stuff back now?"

"Your technology belongs to me, Technus 2.0! With it, I will turn all the automobiles in Amity Park into my servants and take over the world!" He might have gone on, but he suddenly realized that he was announcing his evil plots again.

Angel raised an eyebrow, unseen behind the helmet she seldom removes. "Good luck with that, then. Just leave my Sweetheart out of things." She was being sarcastic out of habit; in truth, she was feeling woefully out of her depth. She could handle one person with ghost-like powers, but not three. And not when two of them were capable of moving things around mentally. And especially not when one of those two was standing right in front of her. As long as he left her and Sweetheart alone, she was more than happy to let him take what he wanted.

Technus watched her walk back to her bike, an idea forming in his head. Danny always managed to ruin things for him, but the boy couldn't interfere if he was busy elsewhere. "Human!" he called. "I couldn't help but notice that you don't like the ghost child."

"He crashed my baby," she replied without looking around. "I'm going to kill him for it."

"Maybe I can help you beat him."

Angel made him wait for a short time before she stood and faced him. "What's in it for you?"

"You, getting rid of him once and for all."

"Yeah, alright," the biker replied after some thought. "I'm game.

Technus grinned. That had gone a lot faster than he expected. Clearly, he was a better negotiator than even he realized. Danny wouldn't stand a chance.


	4. Chapter Three

He'd been threatened, attacked, assaulted, nearly sent to the Ghost Zone by his own parents, beaten within an inch of his half-life by Skulker, and there was a motorcycling maniac on the loose.

Things were just about back to normal. With a happy sigh, Danny dropped onto his bed to stare at the ceiling and try to block out the "sound" of his father's mental shouting. It was strange, but some people had louder thoughts than others. Not that he intended to call Jack an idiot, but mental volume seemed to be directly related to intelligence. He had inadvertently learned more about Dash than he ever wanted know.

On the bright side, he couldn't hear Mr. Lancer even when he tried.

He jumped as the door opened, but it was only Jazz, trying not to laugh. "Danny, it's very difficult to do my homework with you projecting your thoughts again."

His face turned an interesting shade of red. "Sorry."

His sister started to go, then curiosity got the better of her and she turned back. "So what about Dash?"

"You don't want to know," Danny replied, shaking his head. "I wish that I didn't."

She hesitated before leaving again; he didn't have to read her mind to know what she wanted to say. She'd been saying it at every opportunity of late. But he didn't want to talk about what happened. He wanted to forget it had happened. He forced away the image of a woman in white, lying on the ground in a spreading pool of blood. Jack and Maddie were about to leave, and Jazz would understand if he suddenly disappeared. Determined to reclaim his former good mood, Danny switched to his ghost form and went flying.

Everything was peaceful high above the ground. There was absolutely nothing wrong with anything. He sighed; it was so easy to fool himself into believing that. It would be easier if people on the ground would stop reminding him, but at least he could count on someone to arrive at a woefully inconvenient time to distract him. He grinned wryly as he dodged a plasma rifle blast.

"Angel, why are you still here?" he called, dropping lower to face her.

The vigilante revved her motorcycle impatiently. "Let's just say, I've got a new friend." She patted the little black box now strapped to the bike between its handlebars. "As long as I'm within ten feet of this baby, your new power can't touch me. Now, kiddo. I believe we have a race to finish."

Angel shot forward through an intangible ghost boy and turned slightly to fire her plasma gun at him. He ducked and tried to retaliate with telekinesis, but Angel had not been kidding. The attack slid away from her to throw a mailbox straight into the sky. Since there was no one around to be hurt by it, he simply let it fall.

The motorcycle sped through a red light; Danny stopped briefly to ensure that the car she cut off didn't crash. She fired; he returned fire. The shield that protected her only seemed to block telekinesis; maybe it was different than ghost energy? He and Angel both turned as a siren sounded behind them. Danny could almost feel her smirk.

He narrowed his eyes and thought at her, _You are not going to attack him!_

Angel actually flinched, and the boy mentally smacked himself. He had let his anger distract him and been too forceful. He could almost pity her now for the migraine she probably had.

Almost.

With considerably less force, he convinced the police officer to abandon the chase and threw another blast at Sweetheart's wheels. He was aiming to make Angel slow down and swerve so that he could catch her, but she seemed to realize this and just kept going. Her attacks were coming less and less frequently, and they were haphazardly aimed. She wasn't attacking; she was leading him somewhere. But where?

Normally, he tried to stay out of people's heads. Although he often overheard things, he never actually purposefully read anyone's mind except to tease his friends or sister. It was unethical, but so was endangering the lives of dozens of people on some stupid quest to avenge a motorcycle.

Although he couldn't quite focus like he needed to, he did catch a few stray thoughts. "What's Technus got to do with this?" he yelled to her.

Sweetheart swerved to a stop so abrupt that it toppled and rolled over on its rider a few times. Angel stumbled to her feet. He couldn't possibly have known what she was thinking. He couldn't. It wasn't possible.

"Yeah, actually, I do," was his self-satisfied response.

Angel actually started to shake, although he couldn't tell if it was rage or terror. Possibly, it was both. He had forgotten that her desire to be unknown was her biggest weakness. She had revealed her face to him in an effort to confront that weakness, but the knowledge that he could now root around in her mind was…

…was…what…?

Suddenly, all she could think about was a lot of loud gibberish. Danny cringed and tried to pull out of her mind and completely missed seeing her plasma rifle until the blast knocked him to the pavement. "Get out of my head!" she shrieked. A second blast just missed his left ear, and he threw up his ghost shield to intercept the third. Between the near-constant barrage of ectoplasmic energy and the sudden buzzing in his head, he failed to notice that Sweetheart was racing towards him until it almost hit him.

He launched straight into the sky and shook his head to clear it. The buzzing sounded like so much like desperate pleas for help; it was not originating from Angel's mind. He was grateful when it slowly faded while he and his opponent traded shots. Finally, she kicked against the ground and drove off for the direction she'd been heading in with Danny still in hot pursuit. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was flying into a trap, but he didn't have a choice. Angel needed to be stopped, and so did Technus if he was actually involved.

Wait, what was he thinking? It was Technus. Of course, he was involved; he probably built Angel's little black box.

The two enemies passed a crowd of screaming people running the other direction. Judging by the stray thoughts of panic shoved forcibly into his head, there was a large, mechanical thing ahead. There were also cars involved, which meant that it was either Kat or Technus. He sarcastically wondered which one.

"Finally!" yelled the ghost master of electrical technology as they arrived. A red shield sprang up around the city block, probably to keep Danny from escaping. Not worried in the slightest, the boy turned his attention to his surroundings.

Angel rolled to a stop next to something that looked like a Radio Shack had exploded all over an army tank inside a car factory. There were only three monitors, thankfully, and four speakers that Danny could see; however, there were satellite dishes galore. He seemed to have used a tank as the base, although where he had gotten it was destined to remain a mystery. The rest was made up mostly of car parts. Surrounding him was a small army of vaguely humanoid robots that had started out life as vehicles of various types.

"Okay, I'll admit it," Danny said. He gestured at the constructs that were easily twice his height and nodded. "That's impressive."

"Oh, you'll be more than impressed by the time I'm done with you," Technus gloated. "Go, my mechanical minions!"

Danny dodged Angel's attack as she drove by, then started blasting the "car-bots". They were tough, and all seemed to have come equipped with a little black box since telekinesis did nothing. They surrounded him, leaving him with only two directions for escape. He went intangible and dove into the ground only to bounce off with a new appreciation for his ghost form's ability to keep him from getting a broken nose or neck. Apparently, Technus' ghost shield extended across the ground as well.

Left with no alternative, the boy flew upwards and crashed headlong into a car-bot's outstretched hand. The repeated blows to the head were starting to make him very dizzy. He went intangible to no avail as a second bot slammed him into the ground and tried to stomp on him.

What happened to Technus? This plan was actually clever. In fact, it was downright good. And he had never actually chosen cars as the basis for his form before. Kat was going be pissed that he stole her idea.

"Dang it, Kat," he murmured as he just barely escaped being squashed for a second time. She and her father were still on good terms and spoke quite frequently. And, like her father, she often forgot to watch what she said when she had a good idea. Danny didn't think she had given Technus this idea on purpose, but he had no doubt that she was responsible. Cars were her thing.

Outside the circle of car-bots, Sweetheart idled to Technus, and its rider fancied that the engine's rumbling sounded as dejected as she felt. "You said I would finish him off," she reminded her ghostly partner.

"Eh?" Technus shrugged. "I lied. I do that sometimes."

"I don't like to be double crossed."

The ghost snickered and used his power to pull Sweetheart out from under Angel and fuse it with the rest of his machinery. "I am Technus!" he announced for the umpteenth time that day. "How are you going to stop me?"

With a wordless growl of rage, Angel aimed her plasma rifle at her betrayer and froze. She couldn't fire; she might hit Sweetheart. Laughing at her predicament, Technus rumbled away to fulfill whatever the next part of his plan was. Angel sank to her knees in despair until a piercing wail forced her into the fetal position, hands uselessly over her ears.

Danny had tried to blast the car-bots, but there were too many of them. He wanted to say he had taken worse beatings, but he was hard-pressed to think of any. His powers seemed to be completely useless. If they had come at him one at a time, he probably wouldn't have had any problems at all. Trying to focus on all of them at once had turned this battle into a massacre. Left with no other option that he could think of, he had screamed. As usual, the Ghostly Wail ended the fight in a matter of seconds. Now, if only he could something about the amount of power it took to use…

His last thought before fainting was that he was going to kill Kat for this.

* * *

A/N: Okay, I feel that I should apologize for the slow updates. I know every two days is still faster than most of the authors on this site, but I still feel bad making you wait that long. This season is always pretty hectic for me.The cold weather makes me want to stay in bed, and then I wind up frantically trying to get everything done. Sorry.


	5. Chapter Four

There was something off somehow, wrong. He couldn't quite put his finger on it as he regained consciousness, but there was definitely something. He remembered fighting Technus' car-bots and using his Ghostly Wail, and then passing out. So why hadn't Technus or Angel used the opportunity to finish him off? Or had they? Was he a ghost? Was that why he was so cold? Only one way to find out; Danny opened his eyes.

He was lying on a cot in some kind of warehouse; he was cold because there was no heating in the building. As the quiet sounds of sniffling reached his ears, he slowly sat up to find Angel facing away from him. Her helmet sat on the floor next to her; her head was down. Was she actually crying? "Are you okay?" he asked dubiously.

She lifted her head, then wiped her eyes and turned. "Of course," was her harsh reply, all traces of her mood gone save for her reddened eyes. Sadly, she was unable to maintain the charade and broke down again. "He took my Sweetheart!" she cried. "My baby! You help me get her back, and I swear on Frank's grave, I will never bother you or your family again."

Danny nodded his understanding, but not his agreement. "How do I know I can trust you?"

Angel stared at the ground, then looked back up with a defiant glint in her eyes. "You could find out, and I'd kill you for it. Or you could consider the fact that I've had about an hour to kill you already and haven't done it."

After a moment, the boy nodded again and reverted to his alter ego. "What are those black boxes?"

"I don't know. He said they block telekinesis."

Whatever material Technus had made his mechanical form out of, it was nearly impervious to an ectoplasmic energy blast. They needed some way to stop those little black boxes. He smirked; Kat was about to make herself useful whether she wanted to or not.

* * *

"My parents are going to kill me," Danny muttered. Angel didn't respond; he wasn't surprised. "I'm not supposed to be out this late," he continued as though she cared.

"Excuse me," said a quiet voice. The two involuntary allies looked up to see a young waitress smiling nervously. "I'm afraid you're going to have to move; this seat is reserved."

"By who?" Angel scoffed from behind her helmet. That was probably what made the girl nervous.

"Um…our ghost." She blushed slightly, as though embarrassed to say it. Danny covered his mouth to stifle his laughter. He had always wondered why Kat was allowed to be in a bar when she looked his age.

"I don't believe in ghosts," Angel replied blandly. "You want me to move, throw me out." The girl hesitated a moment longer before walking over to talk to her manager.

Danny shook his head. "You still don't believe in ghosts?" No response, naturally. He began to wonder if she was stubborn or just stupid; as much as she had seen that couldn't be explained-

His train of thought was broken as Kat appeared across the table wearing a pink dress. Wait; pink dress? He blinked and looked again, but it was still pink, and still a dress. She leaned forward slightly on her elbows to address Angel. "I do hope you don't mind, my dear, but I like to drink alone. Remove yourself."

"She's with me," Danny interjected, fading into view.

Kat jumped, clenching one fist in a startled reaction. "You do that to me on purpose, don't you?"

The ghost boy grinned impishly and nodded. "Lose another bet?"

Kat sighed theatrically. "No, same one. Please don't ask. So who's your friend?"

"We're not friends," Angel snapped.

"This is Ebony Angel," Danny explained. Kat lifted her eyebrows but didn't interrupt. "Your dad took her motorcycle, and I'm going to help her get it back. In exchange, she's not to try to kill me or my dad anymore."

"Have fun with that, then."

"You're helping."

"Wanna bet?"

A black gloved fist slammed hard into the table, causing Danny, Kat, and several patrons to jump. "Your father took my Sweetheart," she growled menacingly. "Now, you're going to help us, or I will kill you for it."

Kat blinked. "I'm a ghost."

"I don't believe in ghosts."

"Okay, stop please!" Danny exclaimed before it could turn into a cat fight. To Angel, he said, "Just let me handle this," then turned back to Kat. "Okay, tell me if this sounds familiar. A bunch of robots made out of cars that are impervious to my Ghost Ray and telekinesis."

She narrowed her eyes. "Have you been reading my mind?"

"So that was your idea!" Danny exclaimed triumphantly. "Technus is terrorizing the city, and I can't beat him because of your stupid idea!"

Kat opened her mouth, then slowly closed it again and looked down at the table. "I…might have mentioned something about using ectoplasmically-charged reinforced steel cars. In fact, it's entirely possible that I mentioned that to Dad. And while I don't recall exactly, it could even be that I mocked his intelligence because he hasn't beat you yet, and mentioned that that would be a good way to do it."

"And the little black boxes?" Receiving only a blank look, he continued. "They cancel out my telekinesis. Was that your idea, too?"

After a moment's confusion, understanding dawned on Kat's face, and she shook her head. "I think Skulker built those, or the prototype, anyway. It was a few years ago. According to the rumor mill, the technology was stolen. Since it was a box, Box Ghost was the prime suspect, but Walker could never prove anything. So Dad's got it, huh?"

"That doesn't make any sense," Danny muttered. "I didn't even become half ghost until a few months ago. How could he know to build something like that?"

Kat raised an eyebrow. "Don't flatter yourself, Phantom. Most ghosts know telekinesis in some form. How do you think I control cars?" She shook her head. "Fine. I can't help you fight him, but I will get those boxes down. Just keep him busy for a while."

Once she was gone, Angel turned to Danny. "Can we trust her if she's that guy's kid?"

The boy chuckled lightly. "Don't worry. She's helped me beat him before. Come on." He held out his hand, but she didn't take it right away. Instead, she turned away to stare straight forward again.

"Frank was a mechanic, you know." Somewhat surprised by the abrupt change of subject, Danny didn't reply. "He was like a father to me: took me in when I left Hollywood; taught me how to fix bikes. He's the one who taught me to be a hero. He'd hate me if he could see me now, wouldn't he? This…hateful, vindictive shell of what I used to be. Don't ever let anyone bring you down, kid, or you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

The boy sat quietly through the short monologue, uncertain of how to respond. She confused him. First, she tried to kill him. Then, she liked him, or something. After that, she swore eternal vengeance against him. And suddenly, she was…

Well, he wasn't sure what she thought. When she finally held out her hand, the signal that she was ready to leave, he decided to file it away for later. They still had Technus to worry about and a city to save.

* * *

A/N: Just so there's no confusion, I would like to remind everyone that, while Kat is not a ghost, she has always referred to herself as one.


	6. Chapter Five

Even alive, subtlety had never been one of Technus' strong points. As if the sounds of people screaming and things exploding weren't obvious enough, he shouted and laughed manically as he rolled through the streets, causing a small earthquake wherever he went.

Danny started to groan as he realized his foe was heading for a car lot, then changed his mind and groaned instead at a familiar sight. The Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle careened through the streets, hot on Technus' treads. He set his silent passenger safely on the ground with an admonishment to keep out of the way and raced after his parents.

Leaning out the window to fire at the various car-bots, Maddie was the first to see Danny. "What are you doing here?" she called suspiciously.

"Trying to get rid of him!" the boy responded, flying closer to the window so they wouldn't have to shout. "Your weapons aren't going to work; those things are made out of ectoplasmically-charged reinforced steel."

Inside the RV, Jack said something, and Maddie pulled back to converse with him. They still didn't trust Danny as such, but they were considerably more open-minded about him. After a few minutes, his mother leaned back out. "What do you suggest?"

"Help me keep him busy until my friend gets his defenses down."

Maddie nodded and motioned to Jack, who grinned almost evilly. The car-bots were too big and heavy to move very quickly, which meant that the RV was not going at full speed. Throwing all pretense at safe driving to the wind, he shifted gears and shot forward, weaving around car-bots in a most unnerving manner to get ahead of Technus. Danny turned his attention away; his parents could take care of themselves. He needed to get rid of a few of those car-bots, at least. His ectoplasmic energy blast didn't work; telekinesis didn't work…

Or would it? Without stopping, he gestured at a mailbox and threw it into one the machines. The attack barely scratched it, but it gave him an idea. There were plenty of cars around that Technus had decided to ignore for whatever reason. Danny simply picked one up and hurled it at the nearest car-bot with enough force to actually knock it over.

Now, if only Kat would hurry.

* * *

Angel folded her arms and grumbled something about how Sweetheart was her bike, and she should be allowed to help. Well, maybe she couldn't fight, but she hadn't spent ten years as a Hollywood stunt driver for nothing. She ran over to find a decent car with manual transmission. Most of the vehicles had been abandoned with the keys still inside; fortunate, since hot wiring was not something she had ever learned to do. Finally finding one that suited her, she chased after the army.

She laughed as the Fenton RV broke away from Danny. Jack Fenton's driving put her to shame, at least on four wheels. "Ha! We'll see who's the better driver," she whispered. She threw the car into gear with reckless abandon and nearly killed the engine.

"Ah, crud!" she exclaimed, trying to recover. It had been years since she last drove anything on four wheels. She had always preferred manual transmission, but she was beginning to think she should have swiped that automatic. Still, driving a car was like riding a bicycle.

Not that she ever actually owned a bicycle…

* * *

Danny was getting tired. He had never lifted anything as heavy as a car before, and it was giving him a headache. Even worse, the buzzing in his head was back. He shoved it away and tried to concentrate on the fight. Technus had finally stopped in favor of trying to smash the Fenton RV as it circled around him, shouting something about foolish humans trying to stop him.

A red car swerved around one of the monstrosities, lost control, and slammed into a second. He smacked his face in chastisement for the oversight; he really should have known Angel would find a way to be in the middle of this. She slid out the driver side window and was about to get stomped on when Danny dove down to rescue her. "I thought I said stay out of the way."

She scoffed. "Make me."

The boy toyed with the notion of doing just that, but settled for setting her down on a roof instead. He ignored her protests and flew down to join his parents. "How's it going?" he called, lifting a car and hurling it at one of Technus' creations.

"How long are we supposed to this?" Maddie yelled back.

They were interrupted as a laser blast hit the ground right between them. Danny managed to escape relatively unscathed, but the Fenton RV was thrown onto its side. The humans jumped free as it was surrounded by a green glow and floated into the air. "Hey!" Technus exclaimed brightly as he finally figured out why it looked familiar. "Does this thing still have that nice Ghost Shield?"

"Bring that back, you-" Jack began. He was stopped from running after it by Maddie's restraining hand.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"But he took the Assault Vehicle!" her husband whined.

The squeal of rubber on asphalt made all three of them turn quickly to see a black convertible slide to a stop mere inches away. "Get in!" Angel yelled. She wasn't wearing her helmet, but Danny decided to wonder about that later.

"Do I even want to know how you got down?" he asked as his parents piled in with her.

"I jumped," she lied. "Like the wheels? I don't." With a devious grin, she hit the gas and sped off for safety.

The ghost boy spared a moment for a happy smile and turned back to the fight just in time to be slammed into the ground. "I really got to start paying more attention…" he muttered, trying to recover.

Technus backhanded Danny into a wall and laughed. "You're no match for me, ghost child!" he shouted. "For I am Technus! Master of…What?" He broke off suddenly as all the car-bots began to spark.

"Still thy tongue err I cut it out, mine patriarch!" Electra's voice called from somewhere behind him.

Technus swiveled around on his base to face his daughter. "That's it! Go to your room, young lady!"

"Get thee to a nunnery, old man!"

Danny grinned and used the distraction to lift one of the car-bots into the air and throw at Technus. Heavier than a normal car as it was, and reinforced besides, it did a great deal more damage than he'd been doing previously. It took more effort to lift, but judging by the sizable hole it had made, this wouldn't take long.

Technus turned back and started to fire his laser at the boy, but the flying car-bot swung around and knocked it off. When Danny's next attack actually broke the upper half of his host from its base, he decided to cut his losses and run.

"Dad!" Kat called, gesturing towards a glowing hole in the air next to her. "In here!"

Technus smirked. "Until next time, ghost child, when I, Technus 2.0 shall-" He broke off and fled back to the Ghost Zone as Danny pulled out his Fenton Thermos.

The boy blinked. "Does…he…?"

Kat actually managed to keep a straight face for about five seconds before bursting into uncontrollable giggles. "I shouldn't be surprised," she confessed. "But I really didn't think that would work."

"He just…" Danny laughed. "He…sent himself…back to the Ghost Zone!"

"I am going to get an earful for that later."

"Are you sure?" Still laughing, the ghost boy drifted over to the pile of now-defunct machinery and picked through it until he encountered a somewhat beat-up, but still relatively intact, black motorcycle. "I don't suppose you'd fix this for Angel, would you?"

Kat shook her head and shrugged. "Sorry, Phantom, but I'm a programmer. I don't the first thing about fixing hardware."

"Well, at least, I got it back…" He looked in the direction Angel had gone with his parents. "Hey, could you go find her and tell I'm taking it back to her place?"

She tipped her hat and vanished. Danny righted the Fenton RV for his parents before flying off with Sweetheart in tow. By the time he reached the warehouse, he was more than happy to change back into Danny Fenton and collapse on Angel's cot. His head was pounding, and the buzzing noise was nearly overpowering. He only intended to close his eyes for a few minutes…


	7. Chapter Six

Angel frowned as she tried to get a dent out of her bike; it wasn't going well. "Poor baby," she whispered, patting its fuel tank.

"1992, right?" Kat asked.

Smiling, the biker nodded. "Frank found her at the crusher, all beat up. Fixed her, practically rebuilt her. I fell in love with him that day." She laughed. "Well, so to speak. He was fifty-three at the time."

"Ah, father figure."

"Something like that, yeah." They fell silent for a little while as she worked. Finally, she leaned back and turned to face the girl sitting on the broken generator. "Thanks for powering this stuff, by the way."

Kat shrugged. "It's the least I can do to apologize for my dad's behavior."

"I'm surprised you're willing to trust me," Angel remarked.

Again, the ghost girl simply shrugged. "Phantom trusts you. That's all I need." Then she leaned forward, her eyes sparking dangerously. "And if you ever give me cause to regret trusting his judgment, you'll have all the proof you need that ghosts are real." Her only response was a derisive scoff, so she watched with great interest as the motorcycle was repaired; she'd never met anyone quite that obsessive over small details. "Seriously, though," she said after a while. "After that little fiasco, how can you not believe in ghosts?"

Angel stopped again and bowed her head. "Because it would mean that Frank is one, and I don't think I can handle that. So how's the kid doing?"

Kat made a face but complied with the change of subject. "He'll be fine. I left him with his sister before Jack and Maddie even got home. He's still new to telekinesis."

"Could have fooled me."

"He's a quick learner when he's interested. When he's not…" she broke off with an indulgent chuckle that the biker didn't share.

She couldn't shake the image of Danny's eyes, and she couldn't shake her concern. Even more than that, however, she couldn't forget the faint sounds of screaming that flitted through her mind whenever he got too close. "What happened to him?" she asked quietly without really meaning to.

"What do you mean?"

Angel stood to face her companion angrily. "Haven't you seen his eyes? He reminds me of me after Frank died. Something happened to him."

"Ah, that," Kat sighed. "He won't tell me. All I know is that when he came back from Carnate Island, he couldn't stop looking over his shoulder for about a week and was terrified of the color white. Then he got dragged to a ghost hunters' convention in Baltimore. Whatever happened there, it was bad enough that it activated three latent powers. But he won't talk to me about it."

She waited, but no additional conversation was forthcoming. They spent the rest of their time together in silence.

* * *

Danny opened bleary eyes and stared at the clock without really looking at it. After a few minutes numb incomprehension, he realized that he must have fallen asleep. A few minutes after that, he realized that he was at home in bed. Still more minutes passed before he realized that it was 2:47 PM, not AM, and lunged out of bed.

"Morning, sunshine!"

"Kat!" he exclaimed, tramping down the desire to transform in his alarm. "Please tell me it's really still Sunday."

"Jazz convinced your mom that you're sick," she explained. "Considering you refused to wake up under any circumstances, it wasn't difficult to do."

The boy stared at his friend leaning against the door with a superior little smirk, then sank back down onto his bed in relief. "So how's your dad?" he asked.

"Probably feeling really stupid right about now. I haven't gone to see him yet." She laughed and strode forward. "I thought I'd let him cool down for a bit first. Listen, I'm about to go make Jack and Maddie insane for the next hour. Angel wants to see you out where you left her the last time." She shrugged. "I assume you know what that means. Cheerio!"

Danny waited until he heard the familiar cry of "Ghost!" before he transformed and took off. The trip to the back roads on the outskirts of town wasn't a long one. Although he hadn't actually left Angel there, he couldn't think of any other place she might be talking about. He scanned the roads until a plasma blast shot past his ear and drew his attention farther ahead. He wasn't really surprised, but he was disappointed. "I should have known!" he called.

Angel slung the plasma rifle back over shoulder. "Now, that hurts, kid!" She kicked against the ground and shot off, leaving the ghost boy with the words, "Chase me," ringing in his head.

Ebony Angel was scared that people would see her face. Plenty of people had, but the fear was renewed each time she put her helmet back on. She had shown him her face to face that fear to keep him from having any kind of power over her. He could only assume this was the same sort of thing; she had thought at him as loudly as possible to ensure that he heard her think.

Even the smallest thing was a struggle for power in her world, the Los Angeles underground. Any kind of weakness was exploited mercilessly, and her weakness was fear that people would find out about her.

Danny huffed slightly in mingled parts confusion and irritation. _Find out what about you?_ he asked. It seemed safe enough since she had been thinking at him since he found her.

And suddenly, without even getting a response from her, he knew: she was afraid people would find out that she was human.

Sweetheart slowed at last to stop next to a small wooded area several miles outside town. The road was just out of sight, which meant that whatever happened here would be between the two of them. He drifted closer while Angel shut off the engine and pulled off helmet. "I heard that," she told him, balefully.

"Uh, sorry," he replied. "But is it true?"

"Do you know the rumors about me? I'm…an angel, a demon, a superhuman, a ghost, a magical whatever. I don't even know half of what they call me anymore. But that's not it." She shook her head and laughed scornfully. "I don't even know how I got like this. Frank died, and I just…I don't know…I…"

She trailed off, but her mind was still racing loudly. The words made little sense, but the sentiment was clear. "It's not other people finding out about you," Danny said. "It's him. Isn't it?"

Angel looked away. "Okay, get out of my head now."

"I'm not in your head. You're broadcasting at me; I can't help but overhear." Alerted to that, she got her thoughts back under control.

"I'm tired of it," she admitted. "I'm tired of chasing Roho. I'm tired of revenge. It's taken my life away. I don't even recognize myself anymore."

"Then stop," Danny told her. It seemed the easiest thing in the world to him.

She lifted an eyebrow. "You've been Mr. Hero for what, now? Since August, your friend said. Can you just stop?" He shook his head. "I've been Ebony Angel for ten years and hunting Roho for eight. You think I can just stop?"

He was fourteen years old. He was a fourteen-year-old kid. A kid. So why did she look at him as though she expected him to know the secrets of the universe? He was fourteen; he didn't even know how to sort out his ghost hunting life from his personal life.

Yet there she stood, practically begging him to tell her what to do. What could drive a person to such desperate straights that they looked up to a kid for help? He was tempted to find out, but he would respect her privacy. Still, he felt he should say something.

Now, if only he could figure out what.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Angel sighed and replaced her helmet. "I'm going to be in town for a few more days if that's alright. Roho's goonies are on a rampage back home, and I need to lay low for a while." At Danny's wordless nod, she started the engine and drove off.

The boy hovered where he was for a while longer, thinking. They really were a lot alike. They had both tried to be a hero, although she had stopped trying a long time ago. Neither had been properly appreciated for their hard work. They had even taken similar paths in life, though in Danny's case, the events that had led to that particular outcome would never happen, fortunately.

Angel had twisted her own reality until she didn't even know what she was afraid of or why. The only person who could possibly straighten it out had died eight years ago. He had looked for Frank after meeting Angel the first time, but…

He flew home before his parents could get there and miss him, then left his body asleep in bed and went to wait for Kat.

* * *

It was dark and cold, but she felt she deserved it. She sat cross-legged on the concrete floor next to the only thing that mattered in her life anymore and tried not to think. Thinking was painful.

She had never realized exactly how burned out she had become until she met Danny Phantom. He was so young, so full of life…or something…if you believed that cockamamie story about being half ghost. He reminded her so much of herself ten years ago, when Frank found an old Harley-Davidson Sportster and decided he could fix it.

He always saw the good in things and people. There wasn't a bad bone in his body.

She heard the voice, but dismissed it as her imagination because Frank was dead, and there was no such thing as ghosts. She steadfastly ignored the second call of her name until she realized which name he had used. Then she turned.

Oil-stained lab coat, mussed brown hair, those muddy brown eyes behind the glasses he had always hated…"Frank?" she whispered, not wanting to believe it.

He smiled warmly and nodded. "How are you, November?"

She simply stared, then rushed forward to embrace him, trying not to cry. He wasn't as cold as she thought a ghost would be. In fact, it was a little like trying to hug one of those electrostorm things, but she didn't care. It was just like old times when she'd come home all beat up from her latest scrape and start wondering why she kept trying.

He petted her head while she stammered out all her worries and fears, everything she'd been unable to form a coherent thought about. Once she finally fell silent, he held her out at arm's length and nodded encouragingly. "It's okay," he told her.

"No, it's not," she protested. "I'm a bad person. I'm a disgrace."

"You're not a disgrace. You were just a little lost, but you're going to be fine. Isn't that right?"

November blinked and sniffed hopefully. "Are you going to stay with me?"

He shook his head. "You've got to let me go, November. You have to let me move on now. And I can do that because I know you, and I know you'll do the right thing."

The right thing? Yes, she remembered that. She kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Goodbye, Frankie."

As he faded from sight, he mouthed the words, "Thank you."

He reformed outside and glared into an apparently empty patch of air. "You know we're both going to burn for that."

_He's not in the Ghost Zone; what was I supposed to do? Frank's the only one who could have gotten through to her._

Frank flickered and faded to reform as Kat, the self-titled "World's Greatest Actress." "Yeah, yeah, yeah," she sighed. She flicked her wrist in a mocking dismissal. "Get thee from my sight, Phantom. I grow weary of your endless talking in my head."

_Hey! I told you; I can't help it._

"Well, learn to. I did."

Danny stared at the place where she had been, then smacked his forehead as he finally put two and two together. Kat was an astral projection. Looking back on the similarities between her life story and his current dilemma, it should have been obvious.


	8. Epilogue

"Don't look at me like that. No one forced you back into the Ghost Zone, this time."

Technus folded his arms and glowered. "No, I just got tricked by my own offspring! Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"Whose side have I ever been on?" Kat retaliated, her own arms crossed in unintentional mimicry. "You take over the world, and the world can say goodbye to theater. I know you, pops; first thing you'd do is drain the lights off Broadway."

"Ha! That is where you are wrong! I would drain Las Vegas first. Then Broadway."

Kat stuck her tongue out; the situation seemed to warrant it. "Whatever. Either way, I'm on the side of whoever is going to protect my stage." She sniffed arrogantly. "Besides, you should thank me. Phantom would have kicked your butt even harder if I hadn't stepped in."

Technus laughed sharply. "That square can't defeat me, for I am Technus! And don't you even start, young lady!"

His daughter, who was just about to start ticking his various defeats off on her fingers, smiled indulgently and shook her head. "Yes, well," she muttered. "I have to go."

"What? Already?"

"Yeah, I promised Ghost Writer I'd play the main character in this modern-day Scarlet Letter he's trying to write."

"Oh, yeah," Technus laughed maliciously. "The bet."

"Bite me, pops. Cheerio!"

* * *

A man poked his head into the darkened alleyway and looked around cautiously. Seeing only oddly shaped shadows, he motioned to his comrades within the jewelry store's back room and stepped out to stand guard while they moved out laden with stolen goods. The last man out carefully closed the door and started to reset the electronic lock before it could set off the alarm. 

Suddenly, the close brick confines echoed with a deafening roar and a single beam of light lit up the crime scene. "Well, well, well," Angel called over the motor's rumbling. "The dog goes on vacation for a few days, and the sheep think they can graze wherever they want. Let's remind them who's in charge here, shall we, Sweetheart?"

Two of the men dropped their burdens in favor of their pistols; they woke up several hours later in a holding cell, along with eight of their other comrades. Three got away, but only one made it with any merchandise. The last, a young man that had recently joined the gang, ran until he was cornered. He made a valiant effort to destroy her, but a knife is little good against a speeding motorcycle.

He was knocked to the ground hard, and something sat on top of him before he could get up. His vision cleared just as Angel grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him up slightly with one hand and ripped his ski mask off with the other. "Listen, boy, and listen good," she murmured. "Are you listening?"

He nodded frantically.

"Good. Tell Roho Ebony Angel sends her regards. And tell him he can have his trash back." She pulled a large ruby ring out of her pocket and dropped it on her captive's chest. His eyes widened as he recognized it. It was Roho's symbol of power, which she had taken when last they met as a metaphor for taking his actual power. That she was giving it back now implied that she considered him worthless. It would be a great blow to his reputation; even greater than taking it in the first place.

She mounted Sweetheart and rode away, laughing joyously.

* * *

_He stood in a misty void, looking around in confusion. It was a place he had visited often in his dreams of late, but something was different. The buzzing, the crying, was louder. The haze, usually darkened, had brightened to a pale grey…or silver._

_It was impossible; she was dead. He knew she was dead because he had killed her himself. Granted, he hadn't meant to. It had been a complete accident. But his ectoplasmic energy blast didn't work well enough, and she was about to kill his mom. He hadn't even paid attention to where he aimed her colt…_

…_The Mongoose…_

_It was an accident, but it didn't change the facts. Silver was dead. She had to be._

_So why was she standing before him, ghostly silver blood leaking from her wrist and a knowing smile on her face. "_Buenos diaz amante_," she whispered. "Have you missed me?"_

_

* * *

_

A/N: Next up, the sequel to Hounds and Hunters. As you can see, I'm leading right into it.For those of you just tuning it, read that one and it's prequel Cat and Mouse, or you'll have no idea what's going on. While the first two were based off of the mature-themed horror duology, The Suffering, Black and White will not be. Why, you ask? There's no third game. So, yes. Just about everything you read will be dredged up from the darkest parts of my mind. I can only hope it stands up to the other two.


End file.
